Wednesday, January 30, 2013

On my way home from Golden Gardens, I ducked into Diva Espresso to take the chill off. It’s a long, narrow space with the tables parallel
to several windows, which proved to be an unusual perspective challenge viewed
sidelong. Today I wasn’t in the mood for something that difficult, so I took
the easy way out and sketched fellow patrons. But I’ll come back another day
and take on those windows.

It was drizzly and foggy all day. I had to keep turning on
the windshield wipers to clear the mist as I sketched Golden Gardens. On the
far west end of Seattle, this beach can look like Malibu on a sunny summer day.
But today, even the gulls seemed melancholy.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Back in the ‘90s, when I was still running on the 8-to-5
hamster wheel, the Honey Bear Bakery was located near Green Lake (just a
block or so from Zoka Coffee where I now spend so much of my winter
sketching time). On my days off (possibly days when I had called in for a mental
health day, were I to do such a thing), I would hide away at the Honey Bear to
write in my journal and indulge in an oversized, soft and sticky cinnamon roll dotted
with sliced almonds. That’s the kind of place it was – warm, cozy and full of
good smells and neighborhood “regulars.”

At some point it moved to the Ravenna neighborhood, but by
then I had switched to a different hamster wheel, this time in the software
industry that didn’t accommodate mental health days (though it certainly required
more). So I didn’t patronize the Honey Bear in that location.

1/29/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Zig marker, Hand Book Journal

Eventually the Honey Bear moved to Lake Forest Park’s Third
Place Commons, its current location. A couple weeks ago when Seattle Urban
Sketchers met there for the 38th Worldwide SketchCrawl, I had
hoped to get around to sketching the bakery for old time’s sake, but I got too
busy with dancers and other people there. So when the Urban Sketchers Flickr group’s weekly theme came around to “bakeries,” it was my opportunity to go
back to the Commons, this time for breakfast at the Honey Bear.

Although the spacious retail complex isn’t the same as the old
neighborhood spot I loved, the cinnamon roll was just as gooey. I had eaten
almost half of it when I thought of the work of urban sketcher Matthew Midgley, whose blog and Flickr stream are full of food! Inspired by his
mouth-watering sketches, I put my fork down long enough to sketch my cinnamon
roll’s remains (and quickly devoured the still life after I finished the
sketch).

Monday, January 28, 2013

Mixed-media magazine Cloth
Paper Scissors has published an article I wrote called “It’s Never Too Late
to Start” in the January/February 2013 issue. It’s a short chronicle of
how I changed from someone who actually feared drawing into an urban sketcher
who finds nothing but joy in drawing. The article includes 24 of my 100 self-portraits!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Although I’ve been dabbling in watercolors since I first
started sketching and went to a few drop-in classes back then, I hadn’t taken
any formal lessons. After more than a year of winging it, I’m now taking a six-week
course at North Seattle Community College with Susan Schneider to learn the
(correct) basics of watercolor painting.

My uneducated watercolor “technique” (so to speak) so far
has been the coloring book method: sketching an outline with waterproof ink and
then coloring (mostly) inside the lines with paint. While other sketchers use
this popular method to beautiful effect, my results have been mixed and generally
mediocre.

In taking Susan’s class, my objective is to skip the pen or
pencil outline and sketch directly with paint, going more for shapes and
expression than for “coloring” as has been my habit. Happily, Susan has been
very supportive of whatever style students want to pursue.

1/26/13 watercolor, Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook

With my previous method in the field, I’d used 16 Daniel
Smith watercolor sticks in my portable mint tin sketch kit, which served me well. But Susan’s class supply list recommended Winsor & Newton
artist-quality tube paints in only eight colors,* so I decided that this class
is my opportunity to give time-honored WN paints a try as well as step up to
the challenge of a limited palette.

Mint tin sketch kit with WN paints.

Of course, my ultimate goal is to be able to make paint-only
sketches out in the urban landscape. I’ve done a little of this kind of painting in my studio, but not in the field. Let’s call these two sketches
from yesterday’s class my baseline. Maybe with indoor practice between now and June,
I’ll be ready to take my paints outside by summer. (I’ve already made a second
version of the mint tin kit with Winsor & Newton paints, so I’m ready to go! Hear
that, Summer?)

The other day on the Wet Canvas forum, Jan mentioned a
product she had tried and decided she really hated. I was curious about why,
and it was interesting to hear her perspective. In the forum thread, I jokingly
proposed that we should all list our “Bottom 10” most-despised products.

I was kidding at the time, but then I started thinking about
it some more. Learning about why someone particularly dislikes a specific product
they’ve tried can be just as informative as learning about why they love
another product. Idiosyncratic prejudices – hating all dark blue inks because
they remind someone too much of parochial school, for example (yes, I’ve heard
that one) – are perhaps less helpful (though often entertaining). But if a
product is bad or doesn’t perform as well as a competing brand, that’s useful
to know.

At the risk of offending people who love these products, I
present here Tina’s Bottom 10, in no particular ranking order. (Some products
are not pictured because I’ve already given them away to people who love them.
This is what’s wonderful about the wide variety of products available and an
even wider variety of artists: There’s always someone who likes something I
don’t.) There are other products I hate
even more than these and will not use, but they don’t appear on this list
because I think my reasons would fall in the “idiosyncratic prejudice” category
(pens that don’t uncap easily or any dusty medium, like pastels and charcoal).

1. Moleskine Sketchbook:
Boy, do I have a love/hate relationship with the paper in this sketchbook. First
of all, I should say that I otherwise love all things Moleskine. I use a
Moleskine planner every year, and I like their watercolor sketchbooks
(though I wish they’d come out with a portrait format to go along with their
landscape format. It’s not as if all watercolor painters paint nothing but
landscapes). The thick, smooth paper is ideal for markers and pen and ink and can
also support collage. But that nasty manila color makes many inks and markers
look terrible. Even worse, it cannot take a wash worth beans! It actually repels water. For a long time, I kept
using water-soluble markers and watercolors, hoping that one day they would
miraculously stop beading up when I washed them, as if the paper were coated
with wax. I finally quit banging my head against the brick wall and started
using it only with permanent markers (so I wouldn’t be tempted to try yet again to make it wash).

2. Cretacolor AquaStics: I started using these shortly after I began my adventures in
mixed media art journaling, and even as a beginner I could tell these
water-soluble crayons weren’t the best. They apply dry and chalky, and it takes
a lot of water to make their water-soluble properties wake up. The color range
is also strange – so many similar yellows and light blues, for example, and
hardly any good greens. A short time later I discovered Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons, which are exactly the opposite: creamy,
rich, easily washed and available in a huge range of colors. Buh-bye,
AquaStics.

3. Copic Markers:
Favored by manga cartoonists and graphic designers, these alcohol-based markers
are also being used skillfully by some urban sketchers (Liz Steel comes
to mind) to interesting effect, especially when blended with a blender pen. I
bought a small assortment, pulled the cap off the first one and nearly keeled
over from the incredibly strong smell. Because they are alcohol-based, they
also seep all the way through most papers, so you either have to use only one
side of the sketchbook page or use special paper. Forget it. (These are
up for grabs if anyone wants them.)

4. Sakura Pigma Micron Pen: I used Pigma Micron mechanical pens as my default
waterproof drawing pen for quite a while, but I was never completely happy with
the tip that had to be held just right or it would feel scratchy. I replaced
them with Copic Multiliner SP pens, which have the added benefit of
being refillable.

5. Niji Flat Waterbrush: Although the rest of the waterbrushes in the Niji/Kuretake line
(same brand, marketed under different names) are on my Top 10 list – they are
probably my single, most-often-used art tools in the field – this so-called
flat waterbrush is useless. I’ve tried it in many ways, and it’s impossible to
get a decent watercolor wash with it. Plus the cap is too hard to get back on
without risking bending the hairs.

6. Prismacolor Colored Pencils: These wax-based colored pencils are many colored
pencil artists’ favorite, including nearly every colored pencil technique book
author I’ve read. They do apply with a soft and creamy texture, which is
probably why they are so highly favored. But the leads break so easily that
more of the pencil ends up in my pencil sharpener than on my paper. After
trying several brands, I settled on oil-based Faber-Castell Polychromos
colored pencils (and eventually the more versatile water-soluble Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer pencils, which have become my colored pencil of choice).

7. Noodler’s Ahab Flex Nib King Philip fountain pen: When I first started experimenting
with fountain pens as a sketching tool, I did a lot of research to find out
what others liked, and the Noodler’s Ahab pen with its flexible nib was
mentioned over and over. For 20 bucks, it was easy to buy one to try. But the
regret came later when it kept clogging, skipping and blobbing, and being new
to fountain pens for sketching, I thought that was just the way all fountain
pens were. Soon I was doing research just to find out how to vigilantly
maintain and even modify the Ahab to improve performance. I never got around to
learning to use its famed Flex Nib because I was too busy trying to make it write!
I almost gave up on fountain pens completely, assuming I just didn’t have the
patience to maintain one. Then someone mentioned the carefree ease of (equally
inexpensive) Lamy pens. Eight Lamy pens later, I hardly use anything
else to draw with anymore.

8. Noodler’s Black Bulletproof ink: At the same time that I was researching fountain pens,
I also read about inks, and once again, the name Noodler’s kept coming up. I
knew I wanted a black waterproof ink to start with, so I chose Noodler’s Black
Bulletproof ink (among several waterproof black inks Noodler’s offers). I
filled that infamous Ahab pen with it and discovered nothing but misery – all
that clogging, skipping and blobbing! Was it the pen, the ink, or me? When I
gave up on the Ahab for my first Lamy, Noodler’s Black Bulletproof was the
first bottled ink I filled it with. At least the pen wasn’t clogging and
skipping anymore, so I could blame those traits on the Ahab. But the Noodler’s took so long to dry that I was constantly smudging and smearing it. Further
research brought me to Platinum Carbon Black ink, which easily placed on
my Top 10 list for its fast-drying, non-blobbing, perfectly waterproof
qualities.

9. Copic Multiliner SP pen, Sepia: After deciding that my black Copic Multiliner
SP was my favorite mechanical drawing pen, I got one in Sepia for times when I
want a warmer line. I think of sepia as a rich, dark brown; this pen’s color
turned out to be “tan” at best. I don’t know if I got a defective one, or if
this is just the way sepia looks in the Copic world. Never mind; I got a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen in sepia, and it does the job just fine.

10. J. Herbin Glass Dip Pen: Using a dip pen is the most efficient way to test a variety of
fountain pen ink samples (such as the ones I’ve been getting from GouletPens.com),
but I’m not very good with a traditional metal nib dip pen, so I thought this
glass pen would be a fun alternative. Is there a trick to this that I haven’t figured
out yet? I couldn’t get it to hold sufficient ink, and the tip is so scratchy
that it’s more esthetically pleasing to write with a toothpick!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Depending on the time of day I go to Zoka, its patrons’
activities vary greatly. In the late morning and afternoon, it’s full of people
busily working on their laptops or checking messages on their phones. I went
earlier than usual this morning, and I caught a meeting in progress – a rare
opportunity to sketch people interacting with each other instead of their
electronics. Although the group was more difficult to sketch because they moved
around more than gadget users, I enjoyed the challenge of trying to capture
their dynamics.

1/25/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

Today I spotted an even rarer sight: a man simply relaxing and
drinking his morning coffee! (Who does that
in a coffee shop?!)

When I was about to leave, the regular Go tournament that I've sketched previously was
just getting started, so I couldn’t resist a quick profile of one of the
players. I looked at my watch and made a mental note to get there around 9 o’clock
next time with the hope that I’ll be able to sketch more of a match.

1/25/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown

(By the way, this guy really did wear his glasses with the
earpiece and temple way above his ear. Drawing the temple of glasses is usually
the way I figure out where to put the ear, so this one surprised me.)

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Now that the temperatures are in the balmy 40s instead of icy
30s, sitting in my car was still comfortable after finishing my sketch of
St. James Cathedral from the Frye parking lot. Since I began my car-sketching exercises, I hadn’t yet tackled a Prius’ arched roof and broad back end, so
the one parked in front of me was a good opportunity. (Reflected in the
backseat window is the top of one of St. James’ towers.)

Wanting to make better use of my trip downtown, I
strategically parked my car in Frye’s lot so that I had a clear view of St. James Cathedral, or at least its towers, down the street. I heard that the
Seattle Urban Sketchers would be sketching inside St. James next month, but I’m
probably going to miss that ‘crawl, so I’m happy that I got to sketch at least
part of its exterior.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Starbucks has never been one of my favorite sketching places.
Something about the way the tables and chairs are arranged makes it hard to get
a good angle on people while also remaining discreet. With all of their corporate
consistency, I find this to be true at almost all Starbuckses. But I was on my
way to a haircut appointment in the Roosevelt neighborhood, and the nearby Starbucks
was convenient, so I gave it a try.

I do like all the natural light from the high windows in
this particular Starbucks. In the late afternoon, it’s often filled with
students from Roosevelt High School, and gray-haired people like me are known to
be invisible to teenagers, so despite the difficult angles, I managed to sketch
a few students undetected.

Monday, January 21, 2013

The past couple weeks we’ve had deep fog every day, and it
lasts most of the day and night. It’s nearly noon, and I still can’t see past the
house across the street. The tall pine tree behind the house casts a blurry
silhouette against the white sky.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Heading out for the University of Washington’s Suzzallo Library to meet the Seattle Urban Sketchers, I grabbed my 8 ½” x 11”
sketchbook, twice as big as my usual format, because I figured the library’s
grand Gothic architecture demanded a larger page. I was glad I did. I needed the
space to allow this spectacular window to more fully kick my butt.

﻿

1/20/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

After that, I was so exhausted that I needed a nap. Instead,
I retreated to the library’s café and got a cup of coffee so that I could sketch
in my comfort zone.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Seattle Urban Sketchers made a bigger-than-expected showing
at the 38th Worldwide SketchCrawl today at Lake Forest Park’s Third
Place Commons. I had suggested this location because a free community tango
lesson was promised at the center stage, and I thought it would be a great
opportunity for gestural sketches of lots of figures in motion. Unfortunately,
only one community member came forward for a lesson, so there weren’t as many
figures or as much motion as I’d hoped for. I had to settle for a few scribbles
of one of the instructors during the demo.

1/19/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Tango dancers notwithstanding, there were plenty of other people
to sketch throughout the complex.

Friday, January 18, 2013

This Zoka patron was busily alternating between texting on
his tablet and working on his laptop. Eventually his thumbs must have gotten
tired because he put all of his electronics aside and switched to a hard copy
book. (For some reason, I felt relieved. I have to stop identifying with my
sketch victims.)

Yesterday at Gage’s life drawing open studio, one of the
participants was saying he rarely gets practice drawing clothed people because
most of his figure-drawing experience comes from the nude model. Drawing bare skin
is so much easier, he said, than drawing all the folds and creases of clothing.

I’m the other way around – I have more experience sketching
clothed coffee shop patrons than nude models. Still, I agree with him that
capturing the folds and creases in clothing is one of the many challenges
of drawing people (though maybe not necessarily harder than bare skin, which I
find dang difficult). A young man at Zoka wearing a leather jacket gave me an ideal opportunity to practice.

I’m a sketcher who enjoys sketching birds, I’m not a bird
watcher, but The Laws Guide to Drawing
Birds makes me want to become one. Published by Audubon and written by a
naturalist, the book offers many excellent step-by-step instructions on drawing
and painting birds in their natural environment.

Unless we are trained artists, we all have a template or
code in our brains about what a bird is supposed to look like. Getting past the
template and drawing what we actually see is one of the difficulties of
learning to draw, so I particularly appreciate the author’s many tips on avoiding
common pitfalls. For example, an inexperienced sketcher might draw a duck as if
its body is skimming the surface of the water, but in reality, quite a bit of the
lower portion of the body is underwater and isn’t visible.

In addition to stepped-out drawing instructions for common
species, the earlier chapters focus on bird anatomy. With no previous interest
in zoology, I didn’t think I’d find this interesting. Yet as I read, I found
myself completely fascinated by the arrangement and types of feathers, and the varying
structures of wings that help different species soar or flap. With a few paragraphs
of text and many beautiful illustrations, the book debunked a myth I have always
carried in my head: Birds’ legs look like they are bending “backward” at the
knee. It turns out that what I have always thought of as the knee is actually
the ankle, and birds essentially walk on their toes. Written in lay language,
the text points out clear – and surprising – analogies between bird and human
anatomy.

12/28/12 Diamine Chocolate Brown, Velvet Black, Zig markers

In later advanced chapters, Laws shows how to make a flight
model from cardboard to help you visualize the foreshortening of wings as a
hawk circles. A chapter is also devoted to sketching in the field with useful
tips on using a spotting scope while drawing, how to draw a bird in constant
motion, or visually memorizing a bird when you think it is about to take flight
so that you will still be able to sketch it when it’s gone.

Finally, Laws gives a brief but excellent guide to using
color, especially watercolor and colored pencils. I have read numerous books on
watercolor technique that have been spotty in their explanation of color
mixing. The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds
has one of the most straightforward explanations for this potentially frustrating
(and expensive, if you end up buying a lot of paints you don’t use) aspect of
watercolor painting.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in nature
sketching, even if you aren’t particularly interested in birds (because by the
time you finish it, you will be!).

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Frustrated that I couldn’t find a single empty seat at
either of the two University Village Starbuckses (how many Starbuckses does one
retail complex need? Apparently more than two), I decided to go elsewhere for my coffee and sketch and got into my car. But just as I was about to turn on
the ignition, the Subaru Impreza with a huge spoiler parked in front of me
seemed to demand a sketch. From that perspective, it had a comical alien look. I
hadn’t done my self-inflicted car-sketch-of-the-week yet, so why not.
(This is starting to sound more like penance than a sketching exercise.)

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

TheSeattle Times’ Pacific NW Sunday section
had an interesting article about renovated buildings, including
one that now houses Top Pot Doughnuts in the Wedgwood neighborhood. I try to
avoid the temptation of donuts, so I don’t go there often, but the article made
me recall that I had been there more than a year ago.

I flipped through a few sketchbooks from that period and
found the pocket-sized Moleskine with two pages dated Oct. 24, 2011, only a
month after I had started sketching, with sketches I had made at Top Pot. The Times article had included “then” and “now”
photos of the renovated buildings. I thought it would be fun to do my own
version, so I stopped for a sketch and coffee at Top Pot today (no donut).It’s not exactly a renovation, but I do see the changes that
come with the passage of time.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Our thermometer read 33 degrees when we decided to take a
walk in our neighborhood this afternoon. It was the ideal opportunity to field
test my new Freehands gloves. Promoted to outdoor photographers who want
access to camera buttons and controls without having to remove their gloves,
the marketing copy reads, “these gloves have been made flexible by adding
reinforced fold-back thumb and index finger tips that will permit you to use
your phone or text. The magnetically secured fold-back tips will give you easy
access to using your phone's functions.” They sounded like outdoor sketching
gloves to me, so I grabbed a pair when they went on sale at B&H Photo
shortly after Christmas.

1/13/13 Kaweco cartridge ink, Moleskine watercolor sketchbook

When I first got them, I saw right away that the opening to
the index finger needed to be made longer so that my finger would make better contact
with the pen. It was easy to cut a few seam stitches and then sew them back up
to keep the Thinsulate lining from being exposed. Today as I tried to sketch
the Maple Leaf water tower, I realized that the thumb opening would have to be
cut down further, too. Other than my exposed thumb and forefinger, the rest of
my hands stayed warm in the well-insulated gloves. But even in my down jacket,
I got cold quickly. With fond memories of sketching the tower last May on a sunny morning while sipping a joe outside Cloud City Coffee, I
didn’t feel bad abandoning this sloppy sketch after five chilly minutes.

I’m going to cut down that thumb opening, and then the
gloves will work out great. But I think I’ll wait for the temperature to get up
into the balmy 40s before I take them out for another field test.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Many of The Seattle Public Library’s neighborhood branches
are the classic, stately Carnegie type from the turn of the 20th
century, like the Green Lake branch that I think of as “my” library. Unfortunately,
the Northgate branch isn’t one of those. Built in 2006, it looks like a modern
box, which I suppose is appropriate for that neighborhood of Target, T. J. Maxx
and other square-box stores. For that reason, I don’t go there often as a
library patron.

1/11/13 Lamy black cartridge ink, Zig marker

As a sketcher, however, I find the Northgate branch to be a
serviceable venue. Its wide open spaces with chairs and tables scattered
throughout make it easy to find victims, who are busily using the library’s PCs or
their own laptops. (Doesn’t anyone go to the library to read books anymore?)

On the way home, I stopped by at Northgate Mall and found a
table behind a vendor selling half-price calendars.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

I’m reading The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds, by John
Muir Laws. I think it’s going to make me a better sketcher of birds as well as
more knowledgeable about birds in general. (I had no idea bird anatomy could be
so fascinating!) One thing that I read over breakfast this morning stayed with
me all day and will probably remain one of those basic rules of drawing,
similar to “draw what you see.”

The author points out that when drawing from nature, birds
are often too far away to see clearly or partly obstructed by shrubs or leaves.
While it’s tempting to try to guess what you can’t see and draw it anyway, you’re
likely to be sorry if you don’t really know from memory what you aren’t seeing.
His advice: If you can’t see it, don’t draw it.

1/10/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Zig, Hand Book

This afternoon at Revolutions Espresso, I ignored this
advice, even though it was still in my head. Trying to sketch three people in a
business meeting, I noted that a couple people each had pulled a spare chair
beside him or her to hold bags and coats. I wasn’t sitting close enough to see
the tangle of chair legs clearly, and other tables and chairs were between them
and me, so I couldn’t see much of anything easily. I was also somewhat
distracted by the unusual artwork on the walls, including a bra and a feather
boa, and was starting to think my sketch would have been better if I’d focused
on the art instead of all the chairs. But I tried to fake it and see if I could
figure out where the chair legs should be.

After a while I gave up and focused on a single chair and
table, which were close enough to see clearly and without confusion.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

My mother was 14 when she and some of her siblings returned
to Yakima, Washington, to help their father farm. (She was born in Yakima but
grew up in Japan. Although her family’s intention was to eventually go back, they
ended up settling here.) I think this studio portrait was taken around that
time. While her father and older sisters farmed, my mom’s mother stayed behind
in Japan with their younger children for much of my mother’s teen years. I know
this because she used to tell me how much she missed her mom back then.

She is sitting somewhat awkwardly in a wicker chair that would
probably have fit a larger person better. I have tried several times to sketch
this photograph “accurately,” but my attempts never captured the sadness or
wistfulness I see.

(Technical note: This time, I tried using a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, which is similar to the Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen I
used previously, on a Moleskine sketchbook. The paper has a plate finish almost
as smooth as the Stillman & Birn Epsilon’s, except the paper is quite a bit
heavier, so there’s very little see-through. I like the way these portraits from photos look
on the Moleskine’s cream-colored pages.)

In a formal studio portrait of my father taken in the late
1930s, he looks serious and pensive. Once again, he is dressed
remarkably stylishly (I’m obviously having difficulty imagining my dad dressed
stylishly).

My mom is laughing exuberantly as someone snapped her
picture in the late 1940s. A huge corsage is pinned to her shiny dress, which
means the occasion may have been a wedding. Her naturally straight hair is done
in what she always called a “permanent wave.”

Friday, January 4, 2013

When I last visited the Volunteer Park Conservatory in mid-December, the poinsettias and model train in the Seasonal House were
the stars of the show. It had been crowded with holiday visitors, so I felt constrained
to stick with markers and colored pencils instead of paint. Today, that room
and the Cacti House were closed for renovation, so Kate, Peggy
and I were limited to the Bromeliad, Fern and Palm Houses. Luckily, we had the
place nearly to ourselves, and those three houses kept us plenty busy (as we
said, we could visit the conservatory every day and never run out of new things
to sketch).

1/4/13 watercolor, S&B Beta sketchbook

I started out with a huge cycas revolute, or Sago Palm, above,
using Zig markers to stay loose. Then I busted out the watercolors to take on
some of the exotic flowers as I had wanted to do last month. The one at right
is a Guzmania “Neon,” with fronds of Tillandsia in the background. Below is a
ginormous leaf of the Tacca Chantrieri behind a blossom with a phallic-like
stamen. I looked all over for the tag identifying the species but never found
it. Anyone know what this is?

The only philodendrons I’m familiar with are house plants
that live in small pots. But the one below right, a “lacy tree” Philodendron Selloum,
is, indeed, the size of a tree – so large that I decided to sketch only its
trunk, which has an intriguing pattern of “eyes” similar to that on a peacock’s
feathers.

To fill the last few minutes of time before we had to go, I
sketched a carnivorous Nepenthes Truncata, or “Tropical Pitcher Plant,” below left. With a
seductive sheen and beautiful striped pattern, it could easily lure hapless
bugs into its deep Christmas stocking of a mouth. (I made sure I kept my
distance.)

1/4/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

We vowed to return in the spring to sketch a new season of
plants and the building’s exterior, too. (Last August when Nilda and I visited the park, I chickened out on the conservatory and sketched William
Henry Seward’s statue instead. But I’ll be ready to take on the building next
time.)

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

This sketch was done from a photo that was taken shortly
before my parents were married in 1938. Always interested in photography, my father
had a self-timer on his camera (probably a fairly high-tech gadget back then),
so he took the photo himself. They are both grinning like teenagers, probably
in response to a joke my dad had just made as he came running over to face the
camera. He is wearing a very fashionable suit that was definitely not the way
he dressed by the time I was part of their lives 20 years later.

It’s good to look at photos like this now and then to remind
myself that they were people before they became “my mom and dad.”